1
Overview
This is a beta version of a program called “Trickshop”. Trickshop can be used to create themes
(Airskins™) for the ibiza™ Rhapsody® portable wireless media player. This document will discuss how to install and
use Trickshop, and how to install and use a completed Airskin.
As a Beta, Trickshop is not expected to be without
bugs. Please use at your own risk, we
cannot offer any assurances that it will not harm your computer or your media
player. To report problems, get help, or
post your creations, please visit http://www.ibizarhapsodyforum.com.
1.1
What is an Airskin?
Figuratively, an Airskin is a new theme for the ibiza
Rhapsody media player. It can change the
art and colors for the player to be in a certain style (and eventually, let you
add content like podcasts, links, etc.)
Technically, an Airskin is a .tgz tar ball, containing jpg
and png images, along with a manifest.
The manifest tells the player which images are for which element in the
software, and also stores the new text colors.
2
Installing Trickshop
Trickshop is offered as a web-based Java application. This means there is no true “installation”
process. However, you will need the
latest Java Runtime Engine to run it.
2.1
System Requirements
Trickshop has been run before on Windows XP, Windows
Vista, and Linux operating systems.
Presently it is not compatible with the Macintosh operating system, that
we’re aware of.
2.2
Installing Java
Before you can run Trickshop, you must install the latest
Java Runtime Engine (JRE). To install:
1. Visit
http://www.java.com
2. Click
on “Downloads”
3. Follow
the instructions on the page
You may have to restart your browser or your computer
after the installation is completed.
2.3
Starting Trickshop
To start Trickshop:
1. Visit
http://www.variamobile.com/trickshop/trickshop_main.html
2. Click
on the link “Launch Trickshop beta”.
TRICKSHOP MAY TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO DOWNLOAD AND
LAUNCH. Please be patient. Please don’t click on the link a second
time. During the launch, you may see
this question:
If so, please click on “Run”. You may want to check the checkbox, but it
isn’t necessary.
Once Trickshop has started, you will see the main
Trickshop screen:
3
How to use Trickshop
We have tried to make Trickshop pretty simple to use. Here are some basics and some secrets for
using it to make your perfect skin.
3.1
The Skin Content area
The leftmost column of Trickshop lists out the different
areas of a skin that can be created. By
default, it starts on “overview” for the basic skin information. The other areas are:
·
“list screen”:
This is the most important area, because it lets you change the basic
images for a normal list-type screen on the player.
·
“list icons”: This offers the different icon
types that are shown throughout the player.
It is broken into two sections, one for normal indicators and one for
media.
·
“footer bar”: The footer bar is the bar across
the bottom of the screen. Here you can
change it and its contents.
·
“popup boxes”: There are two popup boxes
available to you: the normal information box, and the volume knob.
·
“text entry”: The ibiza Rhapsody uses a special
character ribbon and input box to handle text entry. You can control this look in a list, and also
in a popup box.
·
“special screens”: This section is for screens
that are unlike all others. Available to
you are the Main Menu only for now, but soon there will be more.
·
“create skin”: Click this when you are ready to
save/create your Airskin.
3.2
The device preview
In the middle of Trickshop is an image of the player,
sized such that the screen has the correct number of pixels. As you go through Trickshop, the display on
the screen will change so you can see what it is you’re skinning.
In the “overview” content area, you can change the color
of the player to make sure it matches the color you own!
3.3
Content controls
The rightmost side of Trickshop is the controls for an
area. As you change skin content areas,
these controls will change to show you the appropriate images, icon sets, or
text colors.
3.3.1
The image box
The image box (shown above) lets you choose a specific
image for something in your new Airskin.
Choose an image
Choose from one of the 6 default ones, or click on “New…”
to provide your own image.
Set a tint
The “colorize” control lets you tint the color of the
image you have chosen.
·
Use the vertical control on the left side to
change intensity, and the main color area to change the hue and
brightness.
·
Click on the X to remove the tint completely.
·
If you have a hexadecimal color value to use,
you can type it in the box in the lower-right corner.
·
The box in the upper-right corner next to the X
shows the current tint selection. Tip: Click down in this area, then drag
the cursor anywhere on the screen and release to set the tint to the color
under the cursor.
3.3.2
The icon set box
The icon set box is a lot like the image box, except that
it actually controls more than just one image.
Different small images are grouped into sets to make it easy to skin
them all at once.
The icon set box doesn’t let you choose your own images at
this time. Choose from one of the 7
default icon sets provided.
The colorize control works the same as the image tint
box. IMPORTANT
NOTE: Sometimes, you can tint the “selected” version of icons separately
from the “unselected”. Watch for that
option in the icon set box!
3.3.3
The text color box
The text color box lets you change the font color for text
in the player. You can’t change its font
or style (bold, italic, etc) at this time.
The text color box sometimes lets you set the text color
for a couple different situations. In
the image shown above, there are four: unselected, selected, disabled, and
shadow. Click on the titles to change to
each color.
The “shadow” color selection is a bit special, because if
it isn’t set, then your text won’t have a shadow at all.
The color control box works the same as the one for
images.
4
Creating a New Skin
Once Trickshop is up and running, the process to make a
new skin is pretty straightforward. You
can make a skin as simple or as complex as you like. Future versions of Trickshop may expose more
and more functionality for you to expand your Airskins!
4.1
Some basic tips and tricks
Here are some tips for making a good skin:
- When
possible, use your own images for a totally custom skin.
- Save
your own images as pngs to use transparent pixels. Jpg is also supported.
- Set
the device color so you can match it to your own device.
4.2
Set your basic skin information
The first thing to do is set your basic skin
information. This is what’s shown in the
list of Airskins on the device.
Skin name: This is the name of your Airskin. Keep it short and sweet!
Skin description: This is the description line shown for your
Airskin. No more than a sentence is
good.
Skin icon: This icon is shown for your skin in the list. You can use one of the provided ones, but
it’s better to just make your own. The
icon is 40px by 40px.
4.3
Decorate your skin
Go nuts! Be sure to
go through as many of the content areas as you want, to fully flesh out your
new Airskin. Here are a few pointers to
make it go quickly:
1. In
the “overview” content area, choose a “starting skin tint”. Trickshop will automatically go through and
apply that tint to everything on the player.
This makes sure that your whole skin will match! Go through and fine-tune afterwards. BE CAREFUL, if you try to apply a new
starting skin tint, it’ll throw away any changes you made.
2. If
your background image is really busy, set a text shadow color to make text
easier to read. Go to the “list screen”
content area, and click on “shadow” in the “text colors” box. Choose a nice, contrasting text color.
4.4
Create your skin
When you are all done, click on the “create skin” button
in the lower left corner. The content
area will give you one last chance to set the name and description of the skin
(the name must have a value.) If you’re
happy, click on the “create skin” button in the content area box. You’ll be asked for a place to save your new
Airskin!
5
Attaching your Airskin
Once you have saved your new Airskin, you can load it onto
your ibiza Rhapsody and attach it!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Deleting
or replacing an Airskin that is currently attached on your ibiza Rhapsody will
have unexpected results, and is NOT recommended. Unattach the Airskin before deleting or
replacing it.
5.1
Load the skin onto your player
To load your skin onto the ibiza Rhapsody:
1. Connect
your ibiza Rhapsody to a compatible Windows computer. Windows will detect the player and let you
view it.
2. Go
to “My Computer”, “ibiza Rhapsody”, “Device storage”, “Airskins”. (This path may be slightly different on your
computer.)
3. Find
your new Airskin (it will be named “<skin name>.tgz”, and drag and drop
it into this folder.
4. Once
the copy completes, disconnect from the computer.
5.2
Attach your new Airskin
To attach the Airskin:
1. On
your ibiza Rhapsody, go to “Extras”, “Airskins”.
2. Your
new Airskin should be in the list of available skins. Click on it to attach!
Go back to that same screen and select the very first
Airskin in the list to unattach.
6
Opening and Saving an Airskin
Trickshop is mostly meant for one-time skin creation. However, it does have the ability to open up
an existing Airskin if you want to make changes or finish what you’ve started.
6.1
Open an Airskin
To open an existing Airskin, first launch Trickshop. Then, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard
and click anywhere on the background image of Trickshop. You will be prompted to browse for your
Airskin. Select the .tgz skin file, and
click “Open”.
6.2
Save an Airskin
To save an Airskin, simply create it! This creates the skin tar ball that holds all
the data for your skin, and can be reopened later.
7
Share your Airskins!
Made a cool new Airskin?
Share it with the world! Simply
upload your Airskin somewhere that everyone can get access to it, such as an
FTP site. Your internet service provider
may have this feature, check with them if you are unsure.
Once it is uploaded, please post a URL to the skin on the
ibiza Rhapsody forum at http://www.ibizarhapsodyforum.com. And thanks for sharing!
8
Troubleshooting
This section has not been written yet, since this is still
a beta. If you encounter any problems,
however minor, please join the ibiza Rhapsody forum at http://www.ibizarhapsodyforum.com, and tell us
about it! We will assist as quickly as
we can.
8.1
I made a bad skin and now I can’t see what I’m
doing
If you accidentally attach an Airskin where you can’t see
the text or the selection on the screen, follow these steps to get the Airskin
off:
1. With
the player turned on, press and hold the Back key for 2 seconds.
2. Tap
on the bottom half of the touchpad 7 times.
You should hear it click, if that feature is still turned on.
3. Click
the center of the touchpad.
4. Tap
down two more times, and click the touchpad again.
5. Click
the touchpad one last time. This should
apply the default Airskin.
Or:
1. Attach
your player to your PC.
2. Browse
to the Airskins folder, and delete the attached Airskin.
3. Disconnect
from the PC. The player should return to
the default Airskin.
